We went to Sweetwater, TN for the eclipse. But the thing was, my son was moving into college 2 days later. We could drive the 8.5 hours to Sweetwater, drive back the next day, drive back out the same direction for just 4.5 hours and drop him off.

Or...

We could just pile four of us into the compact SUV, load the entire back full, and pile a mountain in between the kids.

Guess what we picked. :)

The town of Sweetwater is about 6,000 people. Their website said they were expecting up to 50,000 people. We decided to go there last minute (we had no reservations anywhere. We were just going to go west and then see where to go for the best weather.) We were getting quite concerned about traffic and whether we'd find parking, etc. The town had sold all the municipal parking spots eons ago, and was saying that if you didn't have a parking spot purchased, don't bother coming.

The internet said there were still private yards available, so we trekked on.

I think people were frightened off by the news coverage and web covered of anticipated crowds, so it sounds like they only had about 5,000 visitors.

We flaked out on the grass and watched from a soccer field. As totality approached, the cicadas got really loud! A shadow moved across the field and up the hill. And people cheered.

I didn't remember to order a solar filter, but we were able to get welder's glass. So everything was green.

(cell phone attempt through the welder's glass)

The challenge shot was taken after I removed the filter. I forgot to put it back on until the diamond ring got VERY bright (about 5 shots after this one), and then had an "oh Sh*t" moment, and flipped it back down.

My focus wasn't great. I don't know if it was because of the glass, because of my lens, or because of the focus itself. I knew you couldn't set it just to infinity, but with the welder's glass, it was claiming it found the correct autofocus. So I believed it. I did some extra sharpening on the edge of the moon on this shot.

Anyway, It was a tremendous adventure, and I'm so glad that we did it. It was a long, crowded trip with a couple of big days after, but it was definitely worth it.